Rondo – Bastard – Overture – Explosion

Programme note:

This piece is a rondo, a rondo bastard, a bastard overture, an exploded opera overture that never was heard.

The piece is written as a trio piece for POING in 2004. The piece was intended as an overture for the “opera” ‘No Title Performance and Sparkling Water’, premiered in 2004, but it has grown into a piece of its own. The core of the piece is a rondo, with elements returning and developing each time it’s heard, musical elements based on the performer’s own playing techniques. In addition the players use three dictaphones on stage with recordings of themselves practicing the piece in solitude. This frames the piece and gives a perspective when performed live, manipulating with past and present, with distance and presence. The piece has no clear ending, the dictaphones continuing on their own as the performers are leaving the stage.

Reviews:

La Folie: “Huddersfield Festival 2004: (…)If Essential Extensions befuddled me, this is the enigma to end all enigmas. There must be some sort of pre-recorded element, as distant voices occasionally cry out from nowhere. The unsettling effect is used with enough economy to allay tedium. One hears loud gestures from one instrument, then another and another, like waves cresting and subsiding. As with Extensions, the music lacks direction. This is not necessarily a criticism, merely an attempt to classify my bewilderment. Though the overall result is difficult to absorb, I admire its daring. At more than 17 minutes long, it progresses leisurely enough to welcome listeners aboard. The train derails, only to regain its footing: a roller coaster and train wreck, thrilling enough to recommend.” (Dan Albertson)